River was one of the most intense and natural actors of his generation. He could convey so much with just one look. Silence was his forte. His face was like a book. It's such a shame we never had the pleasure of seeing him grow into one of today's finest actors. A far better actor than his brother even if he would have disagreed with that statement. What really saddens me is that River had actually abstained from using drugs about 3 or more months prior to his death. It was anger and disappointment that drove him to use drugs that night. I read somewhere that if River had been a regular user, then he would not have made the mistake he did that night. He was a "dabbler" and he really was not experienced enough with taking drugs to know how much was lethal. I still think his friendship with the Red Hot Chili Peppers is what took him down that road.

Here is a beautiful and heartbreakingly sad article written about River. They do take an accusatory stance against his upbringing, so anyone who is a fan of his parents would not like it:

FunkyHepburn, I got my River films from HMV; all have been brought in offers, so I've never had to pay full price. HMV has: Stand by me, My own private Idaho (sometimes), Mosquito Coast (which is expensive), The Thing Called Love and Little Nikita. I havenít seen any others. I really want Running on Empty, I'm desperate to see that & Jimmy Reardon.

I found an article on him which made me cry some-what! -

Ten years ago, River Phoenix collapsed and died from a drug overdose. He was 23 years old, and the brightest in a generation of Hollywood actors that included Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp and Keanu Reeves. But where others have been made more famous by dying young, Phoenix's star has fallen. Why? Ryan Gilbey asks the actor's friends and colleagues where, if he had lived, he would be today ?If it had happened yesterday, you would have read about it on the internet, or received the bad tidings in an email or a text message. But when River Phoenix died from a drugs overdose outside Johnny Depp's Los Angeles club, the Viper Room, mobile phones were still the size of house bricks. In this country, the first announcements of his death appeared in the low-tech, large-print format of Teletext. Joaquin had accompanied his brother to the Viper Room at 10pm on October 30, along with River's girlfriend, the actress Samantha Mathis, and friends from Red Hot Chili Peppers and Butthole Surfers. An hour into the evening, River was convulsing on the sidewalk after ingesting a heroin-and-cocaine "speedball"; it later came to light that he had been scoring drugs after finishing his day's work shooting for the film Dark Blood. If you had switched on any US TV or radio station a few hours after his death, you would have heard Joaquin's anguished 911 call being played repeatedly. Small wonder that he now freezes out anyone who trespasses on his memories with a DictaphoneRiver had been compared frequently, even before his death, to James Dean, but Phoenix's persona was nowhere near as clearly defined. He hadn't completed an iconic film, a Rebel Without a Cause or a Giant, to sharpen his memory in the popular imagination; only Stand By Me, made when Phoenix was still a child swaddled in puppy fat, came close. (EDIT: I DISAGREE! 1) HE WAS NOT FAT! HE WAS GORGEOUS IN STAND BY ME- SO SEXY<, YES I KNOW HE WAS YOUNG! 2) STAND BY ME WAS AN ICONIC FILM AS WAS MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO)Stephen Woolley was supposed to produce River for 'Interview with the Vampire', for which he had signed to play the reporter Daniel Malloy, a part that went to Christian Slater after Phoenix's death. It was likely that Phoenix would have followed that by appearing as Susan Sarandon's son in 'Safe Passage'; Sean Astin, later to star in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, eventually took the role. Phoenix had also expressed an interest in playing Rimbaud in T'otal Eclipse,' which was eventually filmed with Leonardo DiCaprio as the scabrous poet. It was possible, too, that Gus van Sant would pick him to play Andy Warhol in a biopic that he had been planning for some years. "It dawned on me that you look a lot like Warhol did when he was, say, 18 to 25," the director told him in 1992. "It would be a stretch, but you could pull off playing the young Warhol." He was very attractive," recalls Newman, "but he didn't try to enhance his looks. He was always sort of raggedy, his hair dirty and hanging down." Dirk Drake, his former tutor and friend, has said: "River hated being on the cover of [teen magazine] Tiger Beat. Pulling a fancy T-shirt down and exposing a nipple - he was totally ashamed of doing it but he understood that was part of it all: the mission, the purpose, the job. But he found it ridiculous at the same time." Woolley sensed the same disparity. "River was gifted with phenomenal looks," he says, "and every casting director and producer had him in mind for any film where the pretty boy image was the main ingredient. But he was determined to go against that grain. His philosophy was movie actor, not movie star." Boorman was one of a small number of friends and colleagues invited to attend a memorial for the actor held at Paramount. "His mother said that she'd been in labour with River for 48 hours," he recalls, "and that she was convinced he hadn't really wanted to be born. She thought he had struck some sort of deal so that he wouldn't have to stay very long on this earth. People were invited to say things, and I had that feeling that people get at Quaker meetings, where they suddenly start to shake. So I got up and said, 'Why did he have to take all those drugs?'"People shouted and screamed at me - they were horrified I could ask that question. But it seemed to me that it had been hanging in the air. His girlfriend stood up and said that she thought he could feel people's pain: the pain of the world. And he had to find a way to dull that pain. He simply couldn't deal with it."

River had been compared frequently, even before his death, to James Dean, but Phoenix's persona was nowhere near as clearly defined. He hadn't completed an iconic film, a Rebel Without a Cause or a Giant, to sharpen his memory in the popular imagination; only Stand By Me, made when Phoenix was still a child swaddled in puppy fat, came close. (EDIT: I DISAGREE! 1) HE WAS NOT FAT! HE WAS GORGEOUS IN STAND BY ME- SO SEXY<, YES I KNOW HE WAS YOUNG! 2) STAND BY ME WAS AN ICONIC FILM AS WAS MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO)

He had to gain a bit of weight to do Stand By Me, didn't he? So that he would look younger.

I just watched The Thing Called Love recently, definetley not his best film but it was good anyway.

I found this article about him from 1986, it's weird because obviously I've never read anything about him as I was too young when he was alive, to notice him

Quote:

People Weekly, Sept 29, 1986 The child of flower children, actor River Phoenix rises from a strange past to blossom in Stand By Me.

By Susan Reed

River Phoenix is an odd sort of actor who, for no apparent reason -- perhaps in keeping with his strange name -- likes to give interviews upside down. After requesting a drink from his mother (''Yo, Mama-jama, can we have some OJ, pleeze!''), the 5 ft.8 in. 135-lb. beanstalk is hanging by his knees from an exercise bar in his parents' rented home outside San Diego. He is delivering himself of observations he's formed in his long 16 years. Has he done drugs? ''I've tried marijuana a few times but I don't like it,'' River admits as his size-9 feet -- stuffed into a pair of smelly basketball shoes -- kick wildly in the air. ''I really get boring on marijuana. It makes me dull.''
It's probably the only thing that does. As one of the stars of Rob Reiner's Stand By Me, River is being called one of the most exciting young actors on the screen. In what the Washington Post described as a performance that gives the movie its ''center of gravity,'' River plays Chris Chambers, a scruffy, sensitive, cigarette-smoking kid burdened with a family of losers. ''He's trapped in his reputation -- that no- good Chambers kid,'' says Phoenix, whose quiet intensity has been compared to that of Montgomery Clift and Steve McQueen. ''He's a smart kid. He wants so bad to climb above it all. I felt sorry for him.''
The emotional crescendo in Stand By Me comes when Chris, accused of theft, finally confronts the town's contempt for his blue-collar family. ''For my money it's the strongest thing in the film,'' says director Reiner. ''I've seen the movie a thousand times, and every time I see that scene I cry.''
Maybe what makes River so evocative is that he lacks the affectations of the born-to-be-a-star actor. An independent spirit, Phoenix does not have moussed hair or leather-patched blazers, and he makes no precocious displays of industry sophistication. (He claims he doesn't even know who Vanna White is.)
That ingenuousness owes something to his unorthodox upbringing. River and his siblings -- brother Leaf, 12, and sisters Rainbow, 13, Liberty, 10, and Summer, 8 -- are being raised in '60s style by John and Arlyn Phoenix. After River was born in a log cabin in Madras, Ore., where his parents had jobs picking apples, the family migrated across the country in a VW bus. Joining a religious organization, the Children of God, in 1973 the Phoenixes traveled to Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela.
It was there that River and Rainbow formed a singing duet to help make ends meet. Sometimes they performed in talent shows and sometimes, says River, ''at airports and in front of hotels -- ya know, to eat.''
Although John had been named Archbishop of Venezuela by the Children of God, he and Arlyn became disillusioned with the organization and left in 1977. The family made its way back from Caracas, first settling in Florida, then in California.
While John worked as a landscaper and furniture restorer, Arlyn toiled as a secretary. By the time the family reached California, River was beginning to evince some acting ability. Roles in commercials gradually led to TV movies, a TV series, 1982-83's Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and a feature film, 1985's Explorers.
''We were flower children,'' says John, 39, who with Arlyn, 40, now manages River's career. ''We were full of faith and we loved everybody. I think the kids have learned that. I don't think there is any prejudice in their bones.''
Rob Reiner agrees. ''There's something inside River that his parents are largely responsible for. He's got tremendous warmth; he's obviously been loved quite a bit. His parents have somehow managed to maintain what was pure and good about the '60s morality and make it work. When kids are talented and become successful, you never know if they're going to make the right judgments. Knowing his family, I give River a good shot.''
River gets his next onscreen exposure in December, when he co-stars with Harrison Ford in The Mosquito Coast. Filming the adaptation of Paul Theroux's novel gave River the chance to start a relationship with cast member Martha Plimpton, 15, his girlfriend for the past seven months. They'd met a year earlier, says River, ''but we couldn't stand each other.'' Once filming started, however, ''we realized we both had changed a lot,'' although River can't quite explain how. ''I don't know, we're just cooler, I guess. We both grew a couple of inches.'' River is also at a loss to say how his career will develop, though his imagination and energy should take him far. ''I was in the birth canal for three days,'' he proclaims with a poker face, ''so when I came out, I really shot out.'' If he catapults into the future the way he came out of the womb, River Phoenix is going to be a name to remember.

I just watched My Own Private Idaho yesterday and whoaaa not what i expected at first , but i loovved it by the end! Not many actors can play a character like Mike but i think River pulled it off brilliantly. At the end of MOPI, when the car pulls away down the road, i was crying, though not really for the movie but for river.

From MOPI
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Stand By Me
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He was a truly talented actor who had so much potential. I hope that we have more young actors like him today who aren't acting just for the fame or money...